


desert time, city time

by marginaliana



Category: Critical Role (Web Series) RPF
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 18:13:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23736190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marginaliana/pseuds/marginaliana
Summary: Post-Burning Man, they have to find their way back. It's not easy to let the desert go.
Relationships: Taliesin Jaffe/Matthew Mercer/Marisha Ray
Comments: 9
Kudos: 72





	desert time, city time

**Author's Note:**

> This is fiction and it never happened. DO NOT link this or talk about it to the cast.

The hotel seems like a mirage, an oasis that they've been driving to for hours, days, months but which is, in the end, unreachable. They are in the desert; they have always been in the desert; they will always be in the desert.

Marisha's mouth has a memory of rum and dorito crumbs, the salt of Matt's neck, the gasp she gives every time Taliesin eats her out. Her hands are solid on the wheel but Taliesin's slumped beside her in the passenger seat and it's a difficult will save not to reach over and run a hand up his thigh. His mohawk is damp at the edges and gritty with sand and _fuck_, she would get her teeth into it if she could, tug at him from behind as he fucked himself on Matt's cock. 

Matt is in the back, draped half-across the top of a cooler in a heap of elbows, fast asleep. 

"You know what he reminds me of?" Taliesin says. Marisha startles, then laughs, flicking him a glance. She should have known that Taliesin would catch her looking. 

"What?"

"An old fashioned doll. The wooden kind with the ball joints, held together with string – you know what I mean? One of those but just dropped on the seat back there, thrown aside instead of where he should be, wrapped in soft cloth and squirreled away like a treasure."

Marisha has to force her eyes to the road and blink hard to keep back a sting of tears. "Yeah," she says, and then, "Taliesin—" _You should be, too._

"Don't, 'Risha," he says softly. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know you didn't," she says, and then, "Pick some music?"

Taliesin seems to accept that she doesn't want to talk and so he plugs in his phone, selecting something fairly chill, synth-heavy and melodic. It's perfect – but Marisha thinks she'd almost rather he'd gone for something too loud, too angry. 

The hotel grows large on the horizon and soon it's unavoidable. Taliesin reaches back and shakes Matt gently. Matt makes a snorting noise and sits up, his body loose in the way it always is when he wakes. He reaches his arms up over his head and stretches extravagantly. Marisha casts a sideways glance at Taliesin; the soft smile on his face makes her stomach turn over. 

"We almost there?" Matt asks, yawning.

"Another five minutes, I think," Marisha says.

It's more like three, and Matt is still scrubbing at his face when they pull into the parking lot. Marisha leaves them to pull out suitcases while she checks in; after a moment of hesitation she thinks _fuck it_ and asks for three keys. 

Up in the room she strips off immediately, calling dibs on the shower although there are no objections. When she comes back, hair wet and body hastily dried, she finds them on the bed together making out softly with Taliesin on top. Matt's drowsy but clinging to Taliesin's hips nonetheless, as if he wants to drag him into some shared dream and keep him there. She climbs into bed beside them and slides a hand down Taliesin's back, heedless of her own cleanliness, of the smoke on his skin and the sand in his hair.

"I'll mess you up," he murmurs against Matt's lips.

"You think I care about that?"

"Maybe you should."

Marisha bites down on his shoulder, hard, relishing the way his mouth goes slack. Matt makes a noise of vague protest and Taliesin rocks down against him in a slow grind. Marisha presses down in the small of his back to add a little pressure. Taliesin moans softly.

He's sliding into luxurious now, letting the rawness of the desert slough away. Marisha loves this no less but it hurts to see him set the feral part of himself aside. He's never said a thing, but then again he's always been good at putting things into the shadows.

"Kiss me," Matt says to her, suddenly peremptory; it's just the distraction she needs. She leans in and meets his lips where Taliesin's kissing him so they're mouth to mouth to mouth, warm and slick. Matt reaches over to smooth down her stomach, press his hand between her thighs. 

"Fuck," she says. "How come I'm the only naked one here?"

"You're the prettiest," Taliesin says. 

"False," she says. "We are all pretty, pretty people. So get 'em off, boys."

Matt laughs and shoves at Taliesin's shirt. "You heard the woman."

They have to roll apart so the boys can get their clothes off, but Marisha pulls them back in immediately after, spreading her hands wide over Taliesin's stomach and tugging him up on top of her. He bares his teeth delightedly at her; it's exquisite. She wants a bite, a mark, but they're too close to home to risk it. "What d'you want, babe? We wanna give it to you." She doesn't have to look at Matt to know it's true.

Taliesin groans. "Will you ride me?" he asks. As if she's going to say no. "And Matt can fuck me."

Now it's Matt's turn to moan. "God, yeah."

It's the kind of athletic fuck they don't try for in the desert – the sand, for one thing – or even at home – time and the need for sleep being the major issues there – so it takes a moment to break out supplies and rearrange themselves. But then Marisha gets to watch Matt's face as he opens Taliesin up, the avid way he bites at his bottom lip. Taliesin is squirming but he makes no move to hurry things along; he's always liked being fingered and he takes it for ages this time, his cock going slowly hard as he rocks back and forth. Marisha likes the way he can hold back when he wants to, can stretch out the enjoyment of being touched. It's a present for her and Matt because they get to have him for all of that time.

This time it takes nearly half an hour before Taliesin wants Matt inside him, then another twenty minutes of slow, intense fucking before he asks Marisha to join them. She's absolutely dripping by now, heart throbbing, but she's kept herself from coming, wanted to save it for when Taliesin's in her. Which means that when she sinks down on him she has to dig her fingernails into her thigh to keep from going right then. 

Taliesin grins at that and puts a hand over hers. "Gently, darling."

"Touch me," she groans. "Fucking touch me already."

He reaches up, but instead of going for her breasts directly he pulls Matt's hands from her hips, around and up. Then he's guiding Matt's hands into touching her, rubbing Matt's thumbs over her nipples and giving her gentle caresses without touching her skin at all himself. 

Matt's breath on the back of her neck is shivery and harsh. "Oh, babe," he says. "Babe, the two of you, you have no idea." He pulls her back tightly against him and fucks into Taliesin hard, sending all three of them shuddering.

Taliesin groans. "Give her a little pinch for me, Matt," he says. Matt tweaks her nipples, lightly at first and then harder when Taliesin nods. The feeling stings, but it makes Marisha arch back and shove down with her hips. The movement presses Taliesin's cock deeper inside her; it's so good that her mouth falls open. 

Taliesin laughs a little but he grinds out, "More of that," and they fall into a jagged rhythm, bodies against and in and above each other, sweaty and slick and aching. Taliesin's hands go to her thighs, alternately lifting and pulling as she fucks herself on him. Matt keeps touching her breasts, caressing her, pinching just randomly enough that she doesn't expect it when it happens.

She's too sober to lose herself entirely but words begin to fall away. She becomes a body and a heart and a series of breaths. Taliesin's face is flushed red, his lips parted; he's looking up at them with eyes so bright that it hurts. Marisha touches his cheek gently, slips two fingers into his mouth for him to suck. When she pulls away at last, he's gasping.

"Darlings," he says, "oh my darlings." It's almost a sob.

Marisha reaches down and rubs her wet fingers over her clit, teases at Taliesin's cock where their bodies come together. Her thighs are burning with the effort of riding him and she knows she can't hold off coming much longer. "I want to— feel you," she says.

"_Fuck_," Taliesin says. He lets go of her thigh with one hand and reaches back— but Matt's already got the idea and he slams in hard once, twice – and that's enough to send Taliesin over the edge, to make him thrust up into her and come with gorgeous abandon. Marisha grinds down on his cock and her own fingers and comes with the heat of him. She's still shuddering when she feels Matt come, too, dipping his head to brace on her shoulder and giving that soft little gasp that she loves so much.

They stay like that for one taut moment, three bodies together as one, and then it's too much and they all have to shiver apart. Marisha lets Taliesin's cock slip free with a soft groan and she knows she'll ache tomorrow. He probably will too, given the noise he makes as Matt pulls out of him. But Matt slides up the bed and reels them both into his arms. He doesn't say anything, but then again he often doesn't, in moments like this. Instead he just peppers their faces with kisses, unrelenting, until Marisha's half-tears have faded and Taliesin's clinging hands have eased.

"Shower," Taliesin says at last, and so they all get in and wash each other clean, letting the last of the desert disappear down the drain.

* * *

In the morning they have a lazy breakfast and put the suitcases back in the car. Marisha hesitates after closing the lid of the trunk and it must be obvious what she's thinking because Taliesin abandons the car door to come to her. 

"I wouldn't trade it, you know," he says. "Not trade the city for the desert. Even though I love it. So. Fucking. Much." He reaches up to touch her face and she leans into it. "And I know you wouldn't, either." Behind him, Matt puts his hands on Taliesin's shoulders. 

She swallows. "You're right. But fuck, I'm allowed to miss it." _I'm allowed to miss having you around us all the time._ There are so many things she wants right now but she settles for a kiss on his forehead. 

"You are, and I love you for that. But let's go."

He slides into the back. Matt offers to drive but Marisha shakes her head and so he gets in the passenger seat beside her. She starts the car and pulls out onto the highway.

The hotel is an oasis in the rearview mirror, a place she hates to leave in case it turns out to be a mirage after all. Hotel California, except that the trick is you can't stay. But it also means that they can come again, that she can set her calendar with 'desert time' and know that she hasn't lost it forever. It's still out there somewhere, it's still inside them, too, and she doesn't have to let it go.


End file.
